![Launceston's Adam Garwood on the track in his Holden Commodore. Pictures by Touring Car Masters Launceston's Adam Garwood on the track in his Holden Commodore. Pictures by Touring Car Masters](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/brian.allen/0fe281eb-2ca0-45b5-aebe-53d20348dfb3.jpeg/r0_109_2048_1260_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Launceston's Adam Garwood is preparing for a bumper weekend at the Bathurst 500.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
It'll be all go for the Supercars season opener and the 25-year-old will compete in the first round of the popular Touring Car Masters (TCM) support category.
It's Australia's top series for cars from the classic period of muscle car competition between 1964 and 1980.
Garwood is aiming to complete the TCM series for the first time since 2017 and wants to make a strong start in his Holden Commodore.
"You can make or break a championship with your first round," he said.
Garwood, who started in karting, has raced in numerous categories including Sports GT and the Carrera Cup (Porsche cars).
He then made his S5000 debut at Symmons Plains during Race Tasmania in 2022.
He explained what had drawn him back to TCM.
"It's a popular category for all the fans, they're old school cars which are good fun to drive and somewhat affordable to run compared to the current categories these days," he said.
The steel construction worker said he was now a part-time race car driver and described it as a good outlet.
"I'm taking it as it comes, I've had my chance to try and make a career out of it but it didn't work out," he said.
"Whatever we do, we just do it to the best of our ability."
![Launceston's Adam Garwood at the Adelaide 500 last year. Launceston's Adam Garwood at the Adelaide 500 last year.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/brian.allen/1f994ca3-d9f5-4d30-ab5a-8cf8632e13af.jpeg/r0_120_2000_1364_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The driver races for his family team Garwood Motorsport which has evolved across the years.
He said they kept the Commodore in Melbourne as it became too difficult to take it back and forth from the mainland with other work commitments.
"We still run it under Garwood Motorsport but we have subtractors that come in and help us," he said.
"It's always been a family team and we want to keep it that way as much as possible.
"I've had the pleasure of racing for other teams and just turning up and driving but we like doing part of the work on the car and running it ... there's no excuses."
Garwood said it would be the Commodore's sixth event after being rebuilt for the category in 2020.
"It's still fairly fresh and we're still developing the car, it should be a good package this year," he said.
With the car in Melbourne, Garwood has been getting his eye in driving Sprintcars.
He came second at Latrobe last weekend.
"I'm doing that to keep race-fit so that when we jump in the Commodore we're always on the money because there is such a big gap between rounds in the Touring Car Masters," he said.
The second round will be in Perth in May.
The Tassie talent lauded his prominent Launceston-based mentors Barry Oliver and Johnnie Walker who have long been in his corner.
He said Oliver had always tried to promote the team as much as possible while Walker had done plenty of work on the cars over the years. They are both in the Tasmanian Motorsport Hall of Fame.
Garwood's campaign starts on Friday morning.